"This place looks haunted," the large scarlet macaw muttered.
He looked around uneasily, the large room was dark and musty and filled
with cobwebs. Two doors lead to smaller rooms. The room Aladdin was
peering into looked even spookier than this one.

    "Iago, I don't believe in ghosts," Princess Jasmine said.

    Iago fell backwards off her shoulder, screeched and flapped wildly to
stay airborn.

    Abu yelped and hid under Aladdin's vest. Then he glared out at the
parrot and resumed his position on Aladdin's shoulder. In the dim light,
the monkey's hat and vest looked grimey,  Aladdin's 'street rat' outfit
looked even dingier than usual and even the Princess' sea green outfit
looked like it needed laundering.

    Iago flapped around and poked Jasmine in the nose with a wing tip.
"EXCUSE ME?" he bellowed. "You are talking to a sorcerer's familiar, your
boy friend has his very own GENIE! And you DON'T believe in GHOSTS!!"

    Jasmine suppressed a smile and brushed Iago out of her face. "I didn't
say I didn't believe in *magic*, I just don't believe in ghosts. Ghosts
are just make believe, right Carpet?"
     
     Carpet shrugged. The dim lighting of the room made even his brilliant
colors seem dull. The fact that he was covered with dust and cobwebs
didn't help. When he shrugged, he raised enough dust to make everybody
sneeze.

     Iago flapped over to Aladdin and Genie. "I don't believe it, she's
asking a RUG if he believes in ghosts. What about Ayam a'Ghul!? Don't you
believe in HIM!"

    Jasmine snorted and added, just to provoke Iago further. "He wasn't a
ghost, he was undead. There's a difference."

    "Bah," Iago said flapping off to land on Genie's shoulder.

    Jasmine grinned and looked around. She was having too much fun
baiting Iago to admit he had a point. The room WAS gloomy, the only
windows were small and set high up in the walls. More like a prison than
an apartment. It was a good place to tell ghost stories, she decided, and
she said so to see if Iago would react.

    He did. "GAH! I don't like it here. Why are we looking around at all
the abandoned rooms of the palace anyway?" Iago complained from inside the
room Aladdin was investigating.

    "Aladdin and I will want privacy after we're married," Jasmine said.
"And room for our children."

    "But not here," Aladdin said, emerging from the small room. "I don't
like this place, either." He brushed at the cobwebs that now covered him.

     Genie followed with four or five whisk brooms working at the dust and
cobwebs on his back. Abu sat on his right shoulder and pulled cobwebs and
a few spiders out of his hair.

    Aladdin looked a little pale, Iago noticed. The parrot wondered, a little
snidely, if Aladdin was bothered by the talk about ghosts or the talk about 
having children.

    "It's not that bad," Jasmine said a little defensively. "We can clean
it up and enlarge the windows." She walked over to the third room as she
spoke. Aladdin, Carpet, Iago and Genie joined her as she opened the door.

    Inside the small, dark room was a large bed. On the bed were two
skeletons. Aladdin and Jasmine gasped and clutched at each other. Abu dove
back under Aladdin's vest. Carpet reared back and Genie's eyes bugged out
of his head. Iago SCREECHED and backwinged frantically away from the room.

    The skeletons jerked upright. The female skeleton shrieked and pulled
cobwebs up to her sternum. The male leaped out of bed. "Do you MIND!" he
snarled and slammed the door in their faces.

    There was a moment of shocked silence.  "Uh, sorry," Aladdin said,
gesturing for the others to leave.

    "Go away!" bellowed the skeletons.

    Genie zapped two signs onto the door as he left.
    
    The big one read: "DO NOT DISTURB!!"

    The smaller one read: "The grave's a fine and private place, but none,
I think, do there embrace" -- A. Marvell.

    Aladdin read the smaller sign and snorted. "Must be why they're
haunting a bedroom," he said.

    As they left, they heard Jasmine and Iago arguing ahead of them. 

    Iago: "See! I told you there were ghosts there!"

    Jasmine: "They're not ghosts, they're skeletons." She sniffed.
"There's a difference."


    *** HOPE YOU LIKE IT ! HAPPY HALLOWEEN (OR NOVEMBER, WHENEVER!) ***

    Jill W.